SONOMA, Calif. – Kyle Larson continues to be the man to beat when it comes to qualifying at Sonoma Raceway.
Larson earned his third-straight pole at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday afternoon, leading a Chevrolet sweep of the front row for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350.
Driving the No. 42 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 out of the Chip Ganassi Racing stable, Larson’s best lap of 1:34.784 bested the fast lap by fellow Chevrolet driver William Byron by .043 of a second.
Larson was fastest in both rounds of qualifying at Sonoma, which for the first time since 1997 will feature the full 2.52-mile circuit instead of the abbreviated 1.99-mile circuit.
“We get the pole and struggle in the race, so I hope its not the same for tomorrow,” said Larson, who has failed to finish inside the top-10 the last two years at Sonoma Raceway despite qualifying on the pole both times. “Cool to get a third pole here in a row here at my home track. Thanks to Credit One Bank, all my guys for preparing another fast race car.
“We’ll see if we can try and do a little better tomorrow than we typically do in the races.”
Chase Elliott, who earned his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory last year on the road course at Watkins Glen Int’l, qualified fourth. Daniel Suarez will start fifth in his Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
Toyota/Save Mart 350 Starting Lineup:
1. Kyle Larson
2. William Byron
3. Joey Logano
4. Chase Elliott
5. Daniel Suarez
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Kyle Busch
8. Martin Truex Jr.
9. Ryan Blaney
10. Chris Buescher
11. Jimmie Johnson
12. Alex Bowman
13. Michael McDowell
14. Clint Bowyer
15. Aric Almirola
16. Kurt Busch
17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
18. David Ragan
19. Matt DiBenedetto
20. Ryan Preece
21. Ryan Newman
22. Brad Keselowski
23. Kevin Harvick
24. Paul Menard
25. Daniel Hemric
26. Austin Dillon
27. Corey LaJoie
28. Matt Tifft
29. Parker Kligerman
30. Bubba Wallace
31. Ty Dillon
32. Erik Jones
33. Justin Haley
34. Cody Ware
35. Landon Cassill
36. J.J. Yeley
37. Kyle Weatherman (To Be Replaced by Ross Chastain)
38. Reed Sorenson